According to the study, African Americans and Hispanics absorb more than three hours of television a day. This consumption is increased through media such as Internet. Television consumption increased to five hours and 54 minutes for African-American children, five hours and 21 minutes for Asians, and three hours and 36 minutes for whites.

Couple this data with new research that indicates that people who use multiple media — such as playing a computer game while watching TV — have a higher risk of of anxiety and depression. This could be devastating for a generation of youth and young adults down the road.

Lead investigator Mark Becker of Michigan State University said he was surprised to find such a clear association between media multitasking and mental health problems, but he is not clear why it occurred.

“We don’t know whether the media multitasking is causing symptoms of depression and social anxiety, or if it’s that people who are depressed and anxious are turning to media multitasking as a form of distraction from their problems,” Becker said. He went on to add that overall media use among U.S. youth increased 20% in the past decade, but the amount of time spent multitasking with media spiked 120% during that same period.

Becker and colleagues Reem Alzahabi and Christopher Hopwood surveyed 319 individuals on how many hours per week they used two or more of the primary forms of media, which included television, music, cellphones, text messaging, computer and video games, Web surfing and others.